VC Roundup: BioStrategy primes the pump, SeatGeek gets funded

Welcome to our new weekly round-up, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

DEFINITE READS

The fine folks at the Philadelphia Business Journal profile BioStrategy Partners, a biotech incubator. Based in Elkins Park, the nonprofit focuses on first-time business owners and is funded by local universities and medical schools. And, just so you know, someone in the story uses the phrase “prime the pump.”

Another week and another DreamIt Ventures grad gets additional funding. This week it’s SeatGeek’s turn. The company’s founders, if you remember, founded Scribnia, sold it and got working on SeatGeek just before DreamIt’s demo day. The company also demoed at TechCrunch 50.

After the jump, see what firm saw two portfolio companies get additional funding.

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Startup Leaders hosts second annual Founder Factory to mixed reaction

Founder Factory audience members were given a chance to offer advice, along with panelists, to startups like language-learning tool PlaySay.

More than 250 gathered throughout the day for the second annual Founder Factory, a sold-out gathering of entrepreneurs, investors and students organized by Philly Startup Leaders at World Cafe Live in University City Thursday.

The event was a chance for business-minded folks to gather, discuss, dissect and learn about the work they are doing throughout the spheres of startups, education and investing.

Presenters from Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Wharton Business School, Internet Capital Group, myYearbook and Monetate were rotated with fishbowl sessions— where young startups pitch their idea to experienced business people for advice—each ushered onto the stage to red and blue stage lighting and dramatic rock and jazz music.

During the afternoon, 150 attendees listened to entrepreneurial conversations while seated at long dining tables in front of the stage, standing at the bar, or gazing down from the mezzanine level, while a handful mingled in a nondescript lobby.
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